


Meet the Folks

by shadoedseptmbr



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Meet the Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-02
Updated: 2014-08-02
Packaged: 2018-02-11 10:05:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2063904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadoedseptmbr/pseuds/shadoedseptmbr





	Meet the Folks

“…anyway, thanks for the sweater.  Came in handy a couple of days ago.  Oh, hang on, Mom.”  Kaidan turned around to where his CO was fixing her coffee.  Shepard drank it full-leaded, high-octane, and black as sin, usually but now and again he noticed she’d add cream and sugar and chocolate syrup from a little vac-bag and make herself a treat. 

He really did  _try_  to ignore when she licked foam off her upper lip. 

“Commander, you got a moment?”

She cocked a slanted red brow and nodded as she walked over to him with her rolling gate, “Yeah, sure LT.  Whatcha need?”

“I was just talking to my folks.  My dad served with Anderson a while back and he remembered meeting you once.  Wanted me to say hello, but I thought…”

“Oh.  Um, yeah.  Sure.”  Shepard tugged at the hem of her shirt and completely  _shifted_ , her posture and the way her mouth sat, all the cocksure intensity he’d grown used to gone and a media smooth smile in its place.  “Link me in.”

Kaidan’s mouth had dropped slightly and he fumbled the connection at first. 

She chatted with the Alenkos for a few minutes, telling them what an asset their son was, to the Alliance and to her as her staff LT, asked how retirement was and smiled at the view of English Bay they showed to her.  “Looks like a real nice place to grow up, Lieutenant.  Well, you’ll have to excuse me.  Have a few reports to file.”  She was earnest and smiling and Kaidan swallowed back all the questions to say good night.

When he looked again, he saw she’d left her cup to go cold on the counter. 

Hesitating, he picked it up and took it to her cabin door. 

“Come on.” Short and sweet as a rifle’s report.

The door retracted, but he hung on the doorstep.  Her quarters were shipshape.  The bed was crisply made and there were no signs that his quirky CO was living there except for the neat stack of datapads and a sniper rifle broken down on her worktable…not the HSSWR she’d picked up at the Citadel, but an older model.  “Hey, Wrex, I get it.  We’re headed there as soon as we can, alright?” she spoke into her comm and then turned around.  Her features blurred a little before she cocked that curious brow again.  “Hey, Kaidan…what?”  She caught sight of the cup in his hand and waved him to the desk. “Oh, thanks.  You didn’t have to.  Just set it…” All brisk and business.

He swallowed before he bulled forward and spoke, “You didn’t have to pull on your Alliance Darling togs to talk to my folks, Shepard.”

“I don’t…” But she did and the way her eyes cut told him she knew exactly what he was talking about.

“I mean…you know my dad he…just wanted to say hi to the kid he met once who came over all famous.”

The look she gave him was slightly apologetic.  “Did I cause trouble?” Her question was soft.

“No…no, they were thrilled.   I just…I wanted them to meet  _you_ …not Commander Shepard.”

“Oh.”  She shook her head.  “Kaidan, that’s…maybe that’s not a good idea.”

“I mean,” he stopped and tried to swallow past the hurt, “Just in case this goes somewhere I…”

“I just…never met anyone’s parents.  Like that, I mean. You know?  I’m not the one you bring home.”

Oh.   _Oh._   Formality was a cover.  “Shepard…”

Big grey eyes went narrow and suddenly he was facing the other Shepard.  Not Commander Shepard, Hero of the Blitz. No, this was the Shepard that no one ever saw coming, a click away from the other end of the sniper rifle and his hand froze in midair. 

“Don’t.”  There was a whole ethernet’s worth of information in that growled word.   _Don’t pity me.  Don’t go there.  Don’t cross_ that  _line, Lieutenant._

“Commander?”

Her eyes still locked on Kaidan, Shepard answered, “Yeah, Joker?”

“I got Anderson on the line.  Sounds important.”

“Always is.  Buy me a second, I’ve got gun oil on my hands.”  The click of the comm system seemed to break the spell and she softened again.  “Look, thanks for bringing me my coffee, Lie…Kaidan.”

“Yeah.  I uh, didn’t want you to…waste the chocolate syrup.  I’m…I’m sorry, if I…”

“No… look.  I’m not used to …to this part of this sort of thing.  I’ve never…”  He could feel his eyes go wide  _because no way was she_  and Shepard grinned, just a little dirty.  “No, _that_  I’ve done.  Just not the part where anyone learned a middle name or what my favorite color was. No one cared about anything past the physical, me included, okay?”

“Oh.”

“That’s weird, isn’t it?” 

“Maybe a little, yeah.”  That earned him a chuckle and he nodded, relieved.   “I get it.  Hard to settle down in the Marines, N7…all the places you’ve been.”

"Sure, I guess.  Just...not my thing."

He doesn’t want to ask, but he does anyway.  “And now?”

“And now…I don’t know.  I think…maybe I’d like to try.”  She smacked his shoulder with a gentle fist.  “After we’re done with Saren, maybe we can get a handle on things.”

“I like the sound of that.”  And there’s that dirty grin again.   _Damn._   “My middle name is Elek, by the way.” 

“Is it?”

“After my dad, yeah.”

Aedan grabbed his hand and tugged him to the door.  “C’mon.  Joker’s about to start clicking the comm again, trying to hurry my ass up.”  Just before she smacked the holo to make the door retract, she stretched up and brushed a kiss at the edge of his ear, giving him a fleeting breath of her alliance soap and something hauntingly like autumn leaves.  “Join me for coffee after shift, Kaidan Elek Alenko.”

“Yes, ma’am.”  He’s not blushing.  He’s not.  He's a grown, thirty-two year old man and his scamp of a commander didn't just make him blush.

“Aedan.  It’s the only name I’ve got.” She said it frankly, over her shoulder as she walked through the door. 

“It’s a good name.  I like it.” But Kaidan was careful to say it so far under his breath no one on deck could hear, as they went about the ship’s business.   


End file.
